Page 7 of Embrace
He pointed his head toward the inside of the shop, signaling for me to enter. “Only one book.”
I narrowed my eyes playfully at him as I walked inside. Jake smirked and winked back. I beat back the desire to kiss him and breathed in the overpowering scent of old, printed paper. The place was far from a super-modern Barnes & Noble type of bookstore. Most of the books on the shelves looked worn. Large boxes that contained used books arranged by genres sat open for us to pick through if we were in the mood to hunt for something worth reading. Back when I was in college, before the semester started, I used to call at least a hundred bookstores like the one we were in, asking if they sold any of the textbooks that were on my syllabus. Whenever I struck gold, I ended up buying a book that cost over hundred dollars brand new for only ten to twenty bucks.
I followed Jake along the stacks. “It seems as if you know where you’re going,” I said, sliding my finger across the spines as we passed.
Jake turned sideways but not all the way around. “I do know where I’m going.”
“So there’s something you want to tell me through a book, eh?”
He snorted a chuckle. “It can better explain where I come from than I can.”
“How’s that?”
“It’s a lot of what we were just talking about,” he said, taking care to keep his voice low. “When you’re in it or involved, you can’t see it unless there’s someone on the outside looking in.”
I nodded. “True.”
At the end of the aisle, he turned the corner, and three girls who had just caught sight of him nearly shit themselves, keeping their dazzled gazes pasted on his magnificent face. I was glad when we turned another corner. The eager girls were annoying me. Then Jake stopped in the center of the aisle, and without having to search, he plucked a book off the shelf and held it out for me to take.
“This is for you,” he said.
I hesitated, eyeing him suspiciously as I read the cover. “The Dark Christmases?” I asked as I took it.
“It’s about my family. If you want to know why I’m Jake Sparrow? Read this.”
Once again, I noticed how close he was. I couldn’t take a step back, or I would crash into the shelf, so instead I held up the book, putting it between us to create some distance, then read the cover.
“Written by Holly Henderson—that’s a name with killer alliteration.”
“She’s my sister-in-law,” he said without chuckling at my attempt to lighten the mood.
“Is this an unauthorized biography?” I asked.
Jake stepped closer. The book was against his chest, and I could feel the heat coming off his body. “She was invited to our estate for the Christmas holiday six years ago. I knew what my sister had planned, but I didn’t approve. I…”
I waited for him to finish, but then I turned to see what he was watching. The three women who’d given him eye service earlier were in the aisle, pretending to be looking for a book.
“Come on. I’ll pay for that,” he said, nodding toward the opposite end from where they stood browsing.
When we made it up front, the cashier, an older gentleman who wore bifocals that were too big for his classically handsome face, couldn’t stop staring and grinning at Jake either. Jake must’ve also noticed that the man was tuned in to him, because he seemed fidgety. After paying with a fifty-dollar bill, he told the guy to keep the thirty-eight dollars in change.
“You look familiar,” the cashier said, remaining intensely focused on Jake’s face.
Jake glanced at me.
“Aren’t you related to one of those Christmases?” he asked.
Jake smiled nervously. “Nope. But I get that a lot. That’s why we’re buying the book.”
The guy grunted thoughtfully, unable to take his eyes off Jake. Then he shook his finger at him. “You’re the triplet. The one that’s been missing. Someone said they’d seen you in the area. And I’ve seen you in here before.”
I worked like hell to keep my jaw from dropping, although I was sure my face had turned red.A triplet?
He was still pointing as he said, “They’re accusing you of killing your father, and that’s why you’ve been missing.”
The cashier was reading all of Jake’s reactions. For the most part, Jake kept his cool. He was no longer grinning and using charm to throw the man off, though. His face was expressionless. But the fact that he hadn’t moved an inch was evidence that he was petrified.
The guy handed Jake his change anyway, and he automatically took it and stuffed into his pants pocket.
